Grammy Mystery: Arranger Nelson Riddle Died 40 Years Ago: How Can He Be Nominated for a 2026 Grammy?

Nelson Riddle was one of the finest arrangers in music history. He received Grammy nominations for arranging Frank Sinatra’s “Witchcraft,” “Nice ‘n’ Easy” and “Call Me Irresponsible” and won two Grammys for arranging the title tracks of Linda Ronstadt’s albums What’s New and Lush Life, in which she explored the Great American Songbook.  And that just scratches the surface of Riddle’s vast discography. Riddle died in October 1985 at age 64, amid his career resurgence working with Ronstadt.

So, the fact that Riddle was nominated for a Grammy on Nov. 7 was surprising, to say the least. He’s up for best arrangement, instruments and vocals for his arrangement of “How Did She Look?” from Seth MacFarlane’s Lush Life: The Lost Sinatra Arrangements.

The Recording Academy doesn’t allow recordings by artists who have been dead for more than five years on the grounds that those recordings aren’t, by definition, “new recordings.” (From the academy’s Rules & Guidelines handbook: “New recordings’ is defined as material that has been recorded within five years of the release date and not previously released.”)

So, an unearthed recording by, say, Sinatra or Ella Fitzgerald could not be nominated for a Grammy. Here’s how seriously the Recording Academy takes this five-year rule: When The Beatles’ “Now and Then” won a Grammy for best rock performance in 2024, only Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr received Grammys. John Lennon and George Harrison, who died in 1980 and 2001, respectively, did not. Lennon and Harrison had both worked on the track – Lennon wrote and recorded the original version in 1977; Harrison added overdubs and guitar tracks when the surviving Beatles worked on it in 1995 (only to shelve it until 2003).

But that five-year rule doesn’t specify that arrangements must have been written within the last five years. So, Riddle’s old arrangements qualify – on a technicality.

In answer to our question about why Riddle was eligible, an academy spokesperson said “The arrangement was recorded for the first time on a newly recorded album released this year, making him eligible.”

MacFarlane’s Lush Life: The Lost Sinatra Arrangements consists of a dozen arrangements that Sinatra had planned to perform but never got around to. The arrangements were written by Riddle and two other top-flight arrangers of that era, Billy May (who died in 2004) and Don Costa (who died in 1983).

The Recording Academy’s interpretation of its five-year rule seems inconsistent. Lennon and Harrison were not nominated for their contributions to “Now and Then” because their contributions to the recording were more than five years in the past. By the same token, Riddle’s contribution to MacFarlane’s recording (his arrangement) was more than five years in the past. The fact that it was recorded and released for the first time in 2025, while interesting, seems beside the point.

Nonetheless, the nomination allows Riddle to set a new record for the longest span of Grammy nominations. He received two nominations at the very first Grammy ceremony in 1959 — best arrangement for his stylish work on Sinatra’s “Witchcraft” and best musical composition first recorded and released in 1958 (over 5 minutes duration) for “Cross Country Suite.” He won in the latter category.

John Williams and Barbra Streisand are runners-up to Riddle for the longest span of Grammy nominations. Both are nominated again this year. Williams is nominated for best music film for Music by John Williams, 64 years after he received his first nod for best sound track album or recording of score from motion picture or television for Checkmate. Streisand is nominated for best traditional pop vocal album for The Secret of Life: Partners, Volume 2, 62 years after she received her first three nods for The Barbra Streisand Album and its standout track, “Happy Days Are Here Again.”

The other nominees for best arrangement, instruments and vocals are Jacob Collier for his own track “Keep an Eye on Summer”; Cody Fry for his own track “What a Wonderful World”; Clyde Lawrence, Gracie Lawrence & Linus Lawrence for Lawrence’s “Something in the Water (Acoustic-Ish)” (the eight-piece band features Clyde and Gracie; Linus is their younger brother); and Eric Bentlage, Sara Gazarek, Johnaye Kendrick, Nate Smith (not the country hitmaker) and Amanda Taylor for “Big Fish,” which they recorded as Nate Smith featuring säje (säje being the other four names here).